Stuart Axten

Most school leaders are not chasing perfection. They are chasing progress. Quietly. Relentlessly. Under pressure. That is why Better by Atul Gawande resonates so deeply with leadership in schools. It is not about brilliance. It is about systems, habits and the discipline of improvement. In surgery, failure costs lives. In education, it costs opportunity. The lesson is the same in both fields: Care is not enough. Systems matter. That simple truth sits at the heart of Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande. Although written through the lens of medicine, it may be one of the most quietly powerful leadership books a leader can read. Because it strips performance back to its essentials. Not vision statements. Not slogans. But habits, systems, humility and the relentless pursuit of improvement. In schools, as in surgery, we often celebrate individual excellence. The outstanding teacher. The inspirational leader. The charismatic head. Gawande dismantles this myth with precision. He shows that even the most talented professionals fail without: •Clear systems •Consistent routines •Feedback that is acted upon •A culture that allows challenge and learning The lesson is uncomfortable but necessary. Performance does not improve because people care more. It improves because systems make the right actions more likely and the wrong ones harder to repeat. One of Gawande’s central arguments is that improvement rarely comes from dramatic breakthroughs. It comes from marginal gains applied consistently. This is profoundly relevant to school leadership. Better attendance rarely comes from one assembly. Better behaviour rarely comes from one policy rewrite. Better teaching rarely comes from one INSET day. It comes from leaders who: •Clarify expectations •Remove ambiguity •Build routines that survive pressure •Accept that good intentions are not enough In Gawande’s world, checklists save lives. In ours, systems save learning time. Perhaps the most striking section of Better is Gawande’s exploration of coaching. Even elite surgeons, at the top of their profession, actively seek feedback from others who can see what they cannot. This is where leadership in schools is often tested. Senior leaders are expected to have answers. Yet the most effective leaders are those who remain open to scrutiny. The parallel is clear. Schools improve fastest when leaders: Invite challenge rather than defend practice Use evidence to refine decisions Model learning rather than certainty Leadership is not diminished by coaching. It is strengthened by it. What makes Better resonate so strongly with education is its realism. Gawande does not argue that failure can be eliminated. He argues that it can be reduced. He does not promise excellence overnight. He commits to progress, relentlessly pursued. This mirrors the reality of schools. We work in complex systems, serving diverse communities, under constant pressure. Improvement is rarely neat. But it is possible. The leaders who make the biggest difference are those who ask, repeatedly: What worked today? What did not? What one thing can we do better tomorrow? That mindset is not glamorous. It is transformative. Better is not a book about medicine. It is a book about responsibility. Responsibility to design systems that protect people. Responsibility to reflect honestly on performance. Responsibility to keep improving even when progress feels slow. For school leaders, that message could not be more relevant. Because the work is not about being flawless. It is about being better. Every day.